We've all been there: the Christmas office party that got a little out of hand, lots of booze, a few high jinks and some embarrassed, hungover faces the next day.
But few Christmas bashes will have matched up to the riotous affair thrown in the Honduran embassy in Bogotá, which according to press reports resulted in the mission being ransacked and looted while diplomats cavorted with prostitutes. Someone even defecated in the ambassador's office.
The Honduran daily El Heraldo splashed details of the party in a front page story titled "Diplomatic scandal: prostitutes and drunkenness in Bogotá".
According to the paper, a personal aide to the ambassador organised the party which ended with the diplomatic mission's offices in shambles, papers scattered and computers and telephones stolen.
The newspaper said there was evidence of an orgy in the building.
Ambassador Carlos Humberto Rodriguez was apparently not present at the party which was held a few days before Christmas.
When employees arrived at work the next day they found the ambassador's aide, Honduran national Jorge Mendoza, sleeping in the laundry area of the embassy and a Colombian man was found in the basement, El Heraldo reported. Employees called police who questioned Mendoza about the party and the missing equipment.
The Honduran embassy in Bogota would not return calls asking for comment about the incident.
Colombian diplomatic officials said the incident was an internal embassy matter but were awaiting the results of the police inquiry. The Honduran government had not responded to the story.
El Heraldo said that sources in Bogotá explained that Mendoza had gone out partying with friends on 20 December and returned to the diplomatic mission at around 11pm. They then went out again and returned with "several prostitutes".
At dawn, Mendoza's friends and the sex workers left the offices, apparently taking with them computers and mobile phones.
El Heraldo said that the "embarrassing incident" had compromised sensitive information on organised crime and drug trafficking. "This means that any drug lord … could have paid a prostitute to seduce the ambassador's friend to gain access to the embassy and steal vital information about investigations," the paper said.
Colombia is the world's principal source of cocaine and Honduras has become an important hub for much of the drug supply headed for the United States.
